


Calamity

by rynling



Category: The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Genre: Breath of the Wild Speculation, Epistolary Writing, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-13
Updated: 2017-05-13
Packaged: 2018-10-31 11:30:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,554
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10898445
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rynling/pseuds/rynling
Summary: On her deathbed, Zelda writes a letter to Link to explain what she experienced during the hundred years she spent locked in a fatal embrace with Ganon.





	Calamity

My dearest husband,

If you are reading this, then I must already be gone. I cannot imagine what the state of your heart must be, but please know that I love you. I loved you while you slept, and I loved you when you woke, and I have loved you every day since then.

I regret that we did not have more time together. Although I may still seem young to you, certainly too young to be so frail, all the many years I spent in the ruins of Hyrule Castle have taken a toll on me, and I must leave you. I can feel the beating of my heart grow weaker even as I write this. I know you would object to me leaving my bed, but there is something I must tell you before I go.

When you triumphed over the Calamity, I was able to return to you. We set out to rebuild Hyrule as if nothing had ever changed, and how successful we were. All the tribes came together to reconstruct our castle and our city, and all the while you managed to hide the wounds to your spirit. You maintained a brave face while showing nothing but kindness to others. I tried my best to do the same, but you must have noticed how distracted I was at times. What I could never bring myself to tell you, you who have already suffered so much and borne the suffering of others with such compassion, is what I saw when I held Ganon within the bonds of my seal.

And I did hold him, my husband – I held him close, so closely that at times I could scarcely tell where he stopped and I began. I have been careful to call him "it" in the company of others, but he was a man once, and deep within the malice that consumed his being traces of his mind still lingered.

His name was Ganondorf, and he came to Hyrule from the desert. He was a Gerudo, but his people were not as we know them now. When you traveled across the sand, you challenged the harshest heat and the fiercest storms, yet you never ventured beyond the range of the Sheikah Slate. Did you ever wonder what lay beyond the edges of the map? The Gerudo once knew, and they were our link to the civilizations outside the borders of Hyrule. The Sheikah may have developed the technology that created the Divine Beasts, but it was the Gerudo who introduced it to them.

Imagine, my dear husband, a world where such technology was commonplace. It seems like magic to us, so far is it from anything we can manufacture ourselves, but hundreds of years ago it was nothing more than an aspect of daily life, and even the most innocent child was like a wizard whose knowledge could bring our own Purah to her knees in awe.

But there were some people who were not content to accept what was given to them; there were some people who wanted to understand this technology, and to improve and advance it. These people were scientists, Link, and even now it thrills me to think of their work. While we were skeptical of them in Hyrule, always keeping a tight rein on the Sheikah theorists and technicians, there was no such stigma among the Gerudo, and there were many fine scientists among them.

So it came to pass, hundreds of years ago, that one of the rare Gerudo males was born. He was brilliant and craved knowledge, but he was told that, as the prince of his people, his role was to devote himself to prayer. How ironic it is to me that he came to Hyrule to escape the conservatism of his mother. You see, there had been signs that the kingdom would be beset by a great cataclysm, and so the royal family was pouring its resources into the development of weapons that could combat this enemy, no matter what it was. The young man therefore traveled to our castle, seeking the opportunities that had been denied to him in his homeland.

This was Ganondorf, and he wanted power. There are doubtless many people who would demonize him for this desire, but only those who have never been without power could fail to empathize with the urge to be in control of one's own destiny. You have always protected the powerless, Link, and I'm sure you understand – only those who have never been weak could blame someone for wanting to become stronger. As I sought Hylia's blessing, every pilgrimage detracting from what I felt was my real work, I wanted this same power for myself. I would have given anything to be able to use the Sheikah Slate, or to wield your sword in my own hands! At times I felt that I would have sacrificed my very soul to revolutionize the backward traditions that forced me to be subordinate to you.

But all of that is in the past, and it is not why I write to you now. I want to tell you about Ganondorf and the Calamity, but I'm sure you must have been able to put many of the pieces together yourself. When I placed you in the Shrine of Resurrection, I did not yet know that it was a duplicate of the prototype under my own castle contained within the ancient Sheikah laboratory that was sealed away and forgotten in a time long past. Deep in the bowels of Hyrule Castle you found what was left of Ganondorf, the man who would become Ganon. You saw what happened to him, how broken he had become; there was barely anything of him left.

If only you had known him when he was young and ambitious, Link! If only we had both known him. Even as clever as he was, he wanted to be something other than himself. You never asked to be a hero, just as I never wished to be a princess, but Ganondorf sought out a great destiny, never once allowing anyone to tell him that what he saw in his mind's eye was impossible. I understand now why Ganon was able to seize control of the Divine Beasts. Do you remember how we used to wonder why those machines were called by Gerudo names? It was Ganondorf who made them, working alongside the Sheikah researchers who sought to save Hyrule.

How this man fell prey to the Calamity I have no way of knowing. Did he purposefully use the technology he loved so dearly to transform himself into Ganon, or was his transformation triggered by proximity to something woken by the noise of the laboratory? Did he intend for this to happen, or was he taken against his will? Within the darkness contained by my seal, there were dim flickers of memory, but there was much I could not see and echoes of lost voices that I could not hear. What I know is that, when the Calamity last trailed destruction through this land, it was as Ganondorf. In that era he was forced to bow to the magnitude of the weaponry leveled against him, but he would not make the same mistake again. Underneath the castle he lay waiting for us to resurrect the technology he had surreptitiously reprogrammed to obey his will, and when the perfect opportunity presented itself he struck.

He almost killed you, my love, and the Champions who were my dearest friends met their deaths because of his actions. And yet I have not been able to stop asking myself – why? Why would Ganondorf have done this? We think of Ganon as a curse on this land, a primordial force of destruction that emerged from the void that existed before the Goddesses created our world. But when all of this began, there was no legendary monster, only a man who did not know how terrible a fate he would meet.

I grow tired, and my hand is shaking. Now I must come to my confession. When I enclosed Ganon within the golden light of my seal, I did so to protect the people of my kingdom, but that was not the only thing that gave me strength through the decades. There was a small shining seed of transcendent humanity in the Calamity, and I wanted to protect it as well. If I could shield this spirit from the pure rage circling the ramparts of the castle, then perhaps the shattered body within the heart of the shrine would be resurrected with its mind intact. Perhaps Ganondorf could speak with me of demons and disaster, of history and progress, of power and destiny. 

My vision has grown blurry, yet I can already discern what lies ahead on the path I must walk. He is there, I think. So tightly were the threads of our three lives woven together that we could never be apart for long.

I will wait for you, my hero. We will both wait for you. We will wait for you in the Silent Realm beyond this world, our arms outstretched to welcome you. When you finish your business in the land of Hyrule, please come to us.

With all my love, I will forever be,

Your Zelda

**Author's Note:**

> This story is partially based on [a fascinating exchange](http://corseque.tumblr.com/post/160345712787) between [Corseque](http://corseque.tumblr.com/) and [Golvio](https://golvio.tumblr.com/) on Tumblr.


End file.
